Busy day!

This morning we tried our 1st official gymnastics class for all 3 kids!! The twins tried out a trampoline tumbling class and Annie was in a preschool class, which she was fine with for about 5 minutes until she made up her mind that she wanted to be in the same class as the twins! The sad part was you have to be 4 so she couldn't join them. She proceeded to let all of us in the gym know just how unfair that was for the next 45 minutes!!! She scratched, pinched, pushed, hit, screamed and cried at me bad nothing I could say or do would get her to calm down. 

Half way through the class Elizabeth came to me and told me that her trampoline class was too scary ( too hard I think) and she wanted to join Annie's preschool class ( ages 3-5), they happily allowed her to join them and she did great! 

Mark had a hard time listening to the coaches at first and following direction, but to his credit there was A LOT going on and he didn't know what to expect. He did much better about half way through until the end. And he had so much fun!! The coach thinks he'll do great. We'll find out!

We went to our neighbors house for a hot tub party!! The kids had a blast. My kids went under water a few times each, which terrifies me....Mark did a side dive into the water at the end of the night (on accident , he was just too excited and in a hurry to get in the water) and his entire body and head were under water for a good 3-4seconds. It was enough to scare him into going home  (it was bedtime anyway), and once home he talked to me about it and told me it was scary and that he doesn't want to go back there. I don't want him to have a fear of water, so we talked about it and I think he's going to be ok. 

For real 3!

Sigh. Annie is really 3. And going through some of the unfun parts of 3! It seems like every time I turn around she's making a mess. Ripping up rolls of toilet paper is a common one. Along with playing in the upstairs bathroom sink and getting water EVERYWHERE and all over herself and water item or stuffed animal she's giving a "bath" to. She also loves to pull things out of the pantry. This morning it was a box of opened spaghetti. 

She's flexing her feisty wings as you can see in the following pictures... It's her way of blocking me so I can't get to the movie room!!!

Another summer day

We had a great day today! I figured out that the best time (and usually my most productive time anyway) to get cleaning/chores done around the house is in the morning, before the heat strikes! The twins have become really good at getting themselves dressed and doing chores in order for them to be able to do their "one thing", aka screen time. I really, really love that they are old enough to actually help with some things! 

We made our first attempt at wax paper crayon window suncatchers today. It was not as fun as I had imagined and kind of a lot of work! Maybe I'll post a pic of them completed... But I don't think that's a craft we'll be doing again soon. The kids played pretty well together and I even caught the girls giving each other big hugs!!

Around 5:30 I looked at Annie and saw her hair was wet and sweaty and figured it was time to throw on the swimming suits and head outside! Mark came up with this brilliant idea, the kids LOVED it!!!

I was sitting on the sidewalk when I looked on the porch and saw this :

Poor Annie is still a little sick and I guess she was ready to go inside! Let's hope tonight she (and I) can sleep better!

Sabbath Activities

Yesterday Elizabeth picked a stick from our Sunday approved family activity jar, it's one of her favorite things about Sundays! She chose ' plan a service project for the week'....which to a group of preschoolers means do something nice for someone....right away!!

I asked her what she wanted to do and she said make a card. So we all went upstairs and got out our supplies of paper, glue, scissors, stickers and markers and got to work. I let them choose who they wanted to make them for without a single word of persuasion on my part. Elizabeth chose Emma right away, Annie chose Aubrey and Mark seriously thought about his for a good 20 seconds before choosing his preschool teacher Ms Maryanne!! 

So we delivered our cards and attached a cookie. His teacher wasn't home, but she messaged us to say he made her night! All the kids were so happy. It was a great experience all around!

Elizabeth really was more excited than it shows in this picture!

The bag of cards and cookies!